tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57922036127508538252014-10-01T22:23:30.068-07:00The GraduateHaving a piece of paper that says you're educated just makes you feel stupid. Musings from one stupid graduate.Dingnoreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-91917705362273960372009-09-26T02:40:00.000-07:002009-09-26T02:48:31.270-07:00New BlogI've finally gotten round to registering for some proper web space and got a nifty free domain name with it, so, www.davidhing.com is now my very own internet realm.I am in the process of setting up a new blog called "Chaotic Tortoise", partly because I'm fed up of telling people the name of my blog and then having to say "no, it's nothing to do with the film". Admittedly, I'll probably have Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-5832771881097775572009-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:002009-09-09T17:30:34.865-07:00Pros and Cons of Living with Less PeopleRecently, our cozy little flat has undergone a reshuffle. Best friend, Best friend's girlfriend (who is also a friend) and four Chinchillas have moved out, leaving in their wake a lot of space. My girlfriend and myself have stayed behind in the belief that we can use this space. There are definite upsides and downsides to this scenario.Pro: There is a lot more space.Con: I miss my friends. Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-55185007218734684742009-08-24T05:35:00.000-07:002009-08-24T06:02:53.122-07:00Notes on the CBBC MasterclassI was reading a follow up report to some of the short listed writers for the CBBC masterclass that were selected from a competition that I entered with a script that I realised slightly too late was probably a bit too similar to "Star Wars" mixed in with slight derivative "Final Fantasy VII". The writer in question, a Michelle Lipton, writes that they were shown a clip from a show written by Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-25567362980668679662009-08-20T04:37:00.001-07:002009-08-20T05:00:45.103-07:00Robin Hood but Not Robin HoodA few years ago, I decided that I wanted to have a go at writing a version of Robin Hood for television. The angle I was going to take with it was that Robin Hood was not a noble folk hero acting as the original working-class-hero, but that he was just a very consistant thief who stole everything that wasn't nailed down. The story was going to start with him being blackmailed into acting as theDingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-91941743027333732812009-08-18T11:39:00.000-07:002009-08-18T11:40:56.831-07:00Quick Comment: Did I Write That?When you write things, you sometimes catch yourself writing them and thinking "when I read that in a month's time, I'm going to be confused."The following has made it's way into a brief scene summary in my script: "The Sheriff discusses his motives for being near the docks at this time of night."Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-14631341623085996112009-08-18T10:13:00.000-07:002009-08-18T10:20:54.966-07:00Creative CrunchAn oft mused upon subject of mine that occasionally leaks its way out of my brain is that sort of meta-creation whereby something comes into being as a result of being bored, or not knowing what to do. This blog entry is an example of such a creature. What happens is thus: A writer, artist or otherwise creative type gets their own particular brand of writers block and is unable to think of Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-34837128685305741362009-08-12T01:58:00.000-07:002009-08-12T02:02:10.839-07:00This Might Destroy YouSome may ask "so, David, where have you been and what have you been doing lately?"Admittedly it's not exactly an FAQ, but inbetween panicking an essay out (it's not a piece of writing, it is a piece of panic) I have been having my soul slowly drained by this site. The TV tropes wiki.Now, I was introduced to this a good few months ago and didn't see what the fuss was about. Then randomly I Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-41752430046931004642009-07-31T02:38:00.001-07:002009-08-10T01:53:55.804-07:00Quick Comment: HellIn the lobby of my office, there is rather inexplicably five large letters hanging up that spell "HELLO". I don't know whether this is meant as some rather vacant company motto, or if it's meant to warmly greet you as you trudge past their cold metallic gleam into the fluorescently lit despair of the office, but it appeared a few months ago and I've gotten used to it now.I did say when it first Dingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-8768189188520819442009-07-21T02:37:00.000-07:002009-07-21T02:41:08.482-07:00New Projects and Hard Work in AnimationI’ve always had a profound love of cartoons. I feel like I’ve probably said all this before, but I distinctly remember that as a child I would much prefer anything animated over anything with real life actors in, because anything with real life actors in was either gritty and boring or wacky and annoying. Sometimes it was a mixture of all four, which as you can imagine is difficult to pull Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-40927865667878589272009-07-20T06:01:00.000-07:002009-07-20T06:10:28.611-07:00An Online BugbearI've found myself happier lately by playing a lot less Warcraft. I still probably play a little too much, but it's a fun amount as opposed to a second job.I've been scanning over this during my lunch hour (some strong language and humour that might not make much sense unless you also play Warcraft or some other MMO) and the following is probably what frustrates me about my evenings that I've Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-55612487482086230572009-07-17T06:02:00.001-07:002009-07-21T03:06:24.626-07:00Contingency PlanYou should always have an escape route. I don't think I have one.There has been much talk about redundancies at work at the moment. The long and the short of it is that we're probably cutting work flow by about 50% with about 50% of the workforce possibly having to disappear.The long and the short of it in terms of me is that I'm a little grumpy, irritable, prone to swearing a lot and sitting Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-46590400837961942092009-07-08T01:37:00.001-07:002009-07-08T01:43:20.053-07:00ProjectA while ago I mentioned I was working on an unusual project with a friend.Well, here it is:http://www.redtowergames.com/play/spaceman-preludeIt has come out quite nicely, and although I feel my graphics are a little rough around the edges (the bigger the ships get, the more rubbish they get), they're already being smoothed out in the work I'm doing for the sequel.This has been a learning Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-5001359501628344882009-07-06T02:23:00.000-07:002009-07-06T02:24:04.271-07:00A little bit ExtraLast week, I spent two days in a night club getting incredibly hot and sweaty, slightly bored and having to dance every now and then against my wishes. However, whereas I normally have to pay an entrance fee for this sort of experience, this time they were paying me, because I was one of about two hundred background artists being filmed as part of Ricky Gervais’ latest venture into the world of Dingnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-65883131730891317512009-06-25T06:43:00.001-07:002009-06-25T06:44:12.919-07:00Bad HabitsMust. Get. Into. The. Hang. Of. Writing. Smaller. Blog posts.Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-39350752394971284052009-06-25T06:14:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:16:16.615-07:00Film: Terminator Vs Transformers Vs Star TrekI have now seen all of this unholy trilogy that is being constantly referred to as “the summer movies”, a phrase that makes me wince ever so slightly, as if the only reason I’ve seen these films is because they have been carefully and perfectly marketed to me in order to catch some kind of summer vibe that requires, nay, demands to see things fight each other, win romantic conquests, blow up or aDingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-38702997906078615982009-06-23T05:25:00.000-07:002009-06-23T05:26:28.102-07:00Script WritingI like to think of myself as a bit of a riter. I mean that. I know I’m not of a professional standard, I have no real credits to my name and my only real completed projects are half baked essays and a series of underdeveloped comics. I am a riter. Almost a writer, but not quite enough credentials to really qualify.It is with this in mind that I consider the following might be a pointless thingDingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-88151043169856799702009-06-22T03:31:00.000-07:002009-06-23T01:15:24.896-07:00Multiple ChoiceI finally retook an exam that I had failed over the weekend. I feel better now, but equally terrified.Just to provide a quick background, my GDL law course that I recently finished off comprised of 7 major exams for 7 main topics, 1 research assignment that had to manifest in a 5,000 word essay, 1 case analysis test where we were given a fictitious chain of events to disassemble, and 1 statute Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-58573620776698439802009-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:002009-06-19T06:26:28.217-07:00Three Strikes and you're outIn recent news, we have been hit by a few strikes of late, namely from the RMT tube strike (that admittedly doesn’t exactly affect the whole country, but living in London makes it easy to forget that the tube network isn’t everywhere) and the postal strike that seems to have jumped out on us today. Working for an insurance company that maintains a trade union client base, you would hope that I Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-90403016928953389622009-06-19T01:38:00.000-07:002009-06-19T01:46:41.452-07:0020/20...HearingFor the last two months, I have been deaf in my left ear. This was due to my body's rather strange stress response to fill the ear canal with wax, almost like nature's way of putting ones fingers in your ears and going "LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU".Far from alleviating stress, it does in fact do the opposite, because you can't hear anything.I finally got around to getting it sorted out Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-20744989176688462422009-06-17T04:44:00.000-07:002009-06-17T04:49:23.337-07:00But how does it make money?I’ve recently obtained some work as an extra. I’ve done some work as an extra before, and if you have made an extensive study of the film “Starter for 10”, you will have seen me a grand total of 3 times, but then, actually, if you have seen me and made a note of the superb performance that I gave, then I’ve been a lousy extra as they’re meant to melt into the background...The thing I’ve noticed Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-8504807585181207402009-06-02T03:09:00.000-07:002009-06-02T03:10:08.436-07:00Back to NormalAfter a brief stint of student-ship, I am now back to the treadmill of life and the setting is probably just one notch faster than is strictly comfortable at the moment, but that might just be because I’m not making the effort to keep up.The things I have doneOver the last couple of months that things have been a little quiet here, I have knuckled down to revise for my law exams and taken them toDingnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-14793522193087370232009-05-15T05:33:00.000-07:002009-05-15T05:41:02.204-07:00Online VerificationYou know those little picture things that come up when you want to post something on the internet, or register for something, or sign in somewhere for the fourth time having forgotten your password the first three times? The ones that ask you "in order to filter out spam and to check you're a human being, please type in the letters and numbers you see in the picture below" and then you enter in Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-87460625992009714042009-04-27T06:24:00.000-07:002009-04-27T06:31:40.977-07:00A Long List of Things to DoThere has been a large gap between posts here. It seems any website I run seems to get one of these posts every now and then, due to my prophesized failure on the attention span front, but I do have a few excuses that I would like to invoke and abuse.Well, I have one excuse: Exams. For some reason, the period of time before exams, I turn into a hugely unpleasant person that is not capable of Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-63451868058243587372009-04-01T05:49:00.000-07:002009-04-01T05:50:40.422-07:003 Tips to Help with RevisionAs I rapidly approach my final exams for my law course, I realise that it was naïve to the think my days of preparing for exams were at an end in my final year of university. Even if in the future, I never take another exam in my life, I’m sure I will still face some form of revision in my professional capacity, whatever that may entail. Everyone needs to revise things every now and then; they Dingnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5792203612750853825.post-72717319081272647582009-03-25T04:41:00.000-07:002009-03-25T04:43:46.815-07:00The Web and Mini Comix Thing 2009I have been known to draw comics. I have even published one. I’m not saying they are good comics, but they are undeniably examples of sequential art with dialogue balloons that can not be mistaken for comics. Just to get the excuses out of the way now, I’ve been working on an overhaul for my comic site for a long time and it’s getting there. I also want to go in to a bit more detail with Dingnoreply@blogger.com1